Workers
Workers are the economy units that mine minerals and vespene gas and construct buildings. They are the drone (zerg), SCV (terran), and probe (protoss). All three types of workers cost 50 minerals to produce. Importance Workers are fundamental to economic and tech development, as they harvest resources and construct buildings. Most players spend their starting resources, and the first five or so minutes, training workers. Terran and protoss players typically have at least one command center/nexus training workers and do not stop until the late game; zerg must expand more aggressively and have fewer workers per expansion. Workers are identical aside from HPs and construction method. Raids may aim to destroy workers. Workers may augment base defenses in an emergency, using large numbers to partially offset their poor combat value. Construction Each race's worker unit has a different way of constructing that particular race's buildings. SCVs must be present during the entire construction of buildings. The constructing SCVs may not be controlled during construction; construction must be completed, paused or cancelled to return control. SCVs may begin construction on most open ground. Probes lay down warp beacons that result in a building after a period of time. The probe may move to another task after setting the beacon, unlike SCVs and drones. Probes may only set beacons inside the psionic matrix generated by pylons, with the only exceptions being the nexus, assimilator, and the pylon itself. When the zerg require a new structure, drones are sacrificed in the process of mutating into the desired buildings. With the exception of the hatchery and extractor, drones can only mutate into structures if there is already enough creep to fit the completed building. Gameplay StarCraft Workers return 8 minerals or 8 vespene gas per trip. They return 2 gas per trip from depleted geysers. StarCraft II Workers return 5 minerals per trip from normal patches, and 7 minerals per trip from rich patches. They return 4 vespene gas per trip. Gas may not be harvested from depleted geysers. The terran orbital command allows the call-down of MULEs; MULEs are temporary supplemental worker units that may harvest minerals and repair. MULEs harvest 30 minerals per trip from normal and rich patches, but takes three times longer to mine than SCVs; an SCV and MULE may mine at the same patch at once. MULEs have no attack and have a limited lifespan good for approximately nine trips. Terran command centers may carry five (upgradable to ten) SCVs; these may be transported when airborne. Protoss may use Chrono Boost to train probes faster from nexii. Zerg 's may use Spawn Larva on hatcheries, lairs, and hives to produce extra larvae to be trained into drones. Wings of Liberty In StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, SCVs can be upgraded to repair faster and multiple SCVs can build a structure faster if they work together. Heart of the Swarm In StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, passing the cursor over a main or a gas-extracting building will show the number of workers related to itBlizzard Entertainment. 2012-06-08. Heart of the Swarm Update - New Videos (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - Battle Report (Protoss vs Zerg)). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2012-06-08. (example: "workers: 8/24" on a hatchery and "workers: 0/3" on an extractor).Blizzard Entertainment. 2012-06-08. Heart of the Swarm Update - New Videos (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - Battle Report (Protoss vs Zerg)). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2012-06-08. Legacy of the Void In StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, the starting worker count has been increased to 12. This was done in order to reduce downtime at the start of matches.2015-03-18, Legacy of the Void Beta Preview. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2015-03-20 Co-op Missions In Co-op Missions, Alexei Stukov has access to the infested SCV worker unit, which functions the same as a terran SCV, only with zerg regeneration. Dehaka has access to the primal drone, which operates similar to the regular drone, though with a different building construction animation, summoning and being eaten by a primal structure rather than morphing into one. They can also be sacrificed lower the cooldown timer on Dehaka should he fall in battle. Zeratul has access to the xel'naga precursor, which is identical to the probe unit.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. (Activision Blizzard) (in English). November 10, 2015 Mengsk can deploy Dominion laborers, which are cheaper than normal workers and produce faster. Laborers can work together to speed up construction, and can swap between being a laborer and Dominion trooper.Blizzard Entertainment. Co-op Missions. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Arcturus Mengsk (in English). 2019. References Category: Gameplay Workers